Cruel

Once I lost my wallet after leaving it on the counter of a quiet suburban tobacconist. Returning within five minutes and 100% certain of it’s location, I was confronted by a totally unsympathetic proprietor.

No, he hadn’t seen the wallet and countered my incredulousness with a stare of utter disdain, which almost had me jumping the counter in rage. But there was absolutely nothing I could do, legally.

This was the frustration conveyed by a middle-aged businessman on Friday afternoon who had just been robbed at the gym after work. The thief forced his locker and stole his Blackberry, iPod and wallet. Cruel.

He explained, “After the work-out I went to have a shower. There was only a young fella there, around 19 years old and also changing. When I came back from the shower the locker was open and he was gone."

What surprised me was that the management gave the victim the kid’s name, address and contact details. As this is a well-known city gym maybe they felt some potential backlash from the crime, and so sought to appease the victim somehow.

Anyway, my passenger waited two hours for the police but they were unable to offer anything by way of investigation, despite the gym management confirming that the kid was the only person in the locker room at the time.

So as a last resort the victim rang the kid, explained that he could keep the cash but pleaded for the return of his business contacts and files, family Christmas images, and a digitised memento of his recently deceased father. The kid denied being the culprit, abused him and hung up.

Unfortunately for my passenger the locker security was totally useless, there was no surveillance in the change room, obviously, and no one saw the robbery. There was nothing he could do, legally.

Comments

[Epskee]

The gym is lucky that the businessman was a decent person, and didn't go and assault the young fella.

I would be rather surprised if their contract has a clause allowing them to give their patron's details to other patrons, particularly when they are making accusations of theft.

If I was the young guy, I'd be taking that up with management. (But then I also wouldnt have stolen anything)

[Peter Deane]

The police need evidence of the crime. Your victim should have verballed the kid. IE say he SAW the kid break into the locker and take the stuff. That's pretty good evidence. Backed up by the claim from the Gym that the kid was the only one in the room, I reckon you'd have a conviction there. The victium could then say he wasn't able to do anything about the theft as he was in the shower naked at the time of the offence!

The victim has obviously answered the question "did you actually SEE the kid take the stuff" with a "no" and his honesty has cost him any chance of recovery of his stuff.

For further evidence he might have taken the cops around to the kid's place and rang his phone. Striking while the iron was hot may have struck pay dirt! Alas, however, the dishonest seem to have triumphed over the honest.

[Bill]

The Police don't care. My daughter's wallet and mobile were stolen from her bag at school. According to the phone account there were several numbers called after the theft.I took the list of numbers (probably the thief's friends) to Randwick Police Station, and was treated with total indifference. The young policewoman said"they're only kids - forget about it".

[LeftyBanana]

In reference to the tobacconist, there is something you can do, legally.
You have a blog read by many many people. Adding his name, when your blog is google-able, means everyone else in the world can know how shonky he is.